Georgia O’Keefe is one of the few female icons of the painted American West. For many years I have visited and re-visited Mecca, the museum in Santa Fe that bears her name and holds a substantial number of her works. I continue to be puzzled by the vibrant colors, huge flowers, floating bones, and surreal landscapes. I’ve stood alongside her paintings (until the guards tap me on the shoulder), trying to see the vertical rise of the layers in her masterpieces. Like all great art – be it a painting, photograph, sculpture, or book – I find something new every time.

This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to see the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition, Natural Affinities, which juxtaposed her paintings with Ansel Adams’ photographs. In the exhibition, the painting and photograph of the same subject – a mountain range, a church, or a tree – sat right next to one another. The juxtaposition served as an ethnographic study of New Mexico, and it deepened my appreciation for the artists, their art, and the Land of Enchantment.

I love O’Keefe’s work, and I’m thrilled her legacy lives on.

But was she the only woman painting the American West? Turns out, actually, no.

There was also Californian-born and New Mexican-transplanted Gene Kloss, a watercolor woman who became famous for her printmaking. Kloss’s paintings of Taos resemble O’Keefe’s, but her prints, which are actually painted-on etchings called aquatints, are 100% original. Her etching of the Ranchos de Taos Church, also made famous by Adams and O’Keefe, stands out as a remarkable piece of art. Both Adams’ and O’Keefe’s representations of this famous 18th century church highlight the structure’s lumbering simplicity and grace. Both Ansel and Georgia were keenly aware of the fantastic lightplay that the simple lines of the church allow. The light, shadow, and sky that surround the church frame it in both pieces.

But Kloss’s aquatint of the Ranchos de Taos is nothing short of magnificent. Kloss adds the element of people to the etching, who trudge, with their backs to us, toward the edifice. Light emanates from the top of the church, and white floods the foreground of the aquatint. Flora, buildings, and the curvy lines of nearby mountains frame the church and its attendees. It’s a scene rich with a history of landscape and humans.

And while Adams named his photograph Saint Francis Church, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, and O’Keefe named hers simply Ranchos Church, Kloss’s title, Enduring Sanctuary, reminds us that the church has endured as a refuge for the people in the etching’s foreground.

The Sangre de Cristo Art Center in Pueblo, Colorado holds the largest Kloss collection in the world. There one can not only see her watercolors and aquatints but also the tools of her trade: the original plates. So the next time I head down I-25 to pay tribute to Ms. O’Keefe in Santa Fe, I’m making a stop in Pueblo. It’s on the way.

About the Author: Tracey's interests in history range from the ancient Greeks to the medieval monks to the women of the American West. She holds a B.A. in History, Math/Philosophy, and the Classics. When not writing, editing, or teaching, she's out exploring, via her mountain bike, the Anasazi ruins in and around her home state of Colorado. Tracey is the Managing Editor of Great History.

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